Horizon Implementation Guide: What's Changed for The Graph Network’s Participants
Understanding The Graph’s Horizon Upgrade
Horizon marks the most significant evolution of The Graph since the decentralized network launched. What began as a protocol purpose-built for Subgraphs has expanded into a modular, multi-service architecture capable of supporting a wide range of data solutions. Subgraphs remain a foundational service, but Horizon now enables the protocol to support additional data services like Substreams, Token API, analytics engines, and future categories that have not yet been imagined.
Horizon transforms The Graph’s core components into reusable protocol primitives. Staking and payments now apply across many types of services rather than being tied to a single indexing product. This shift unlocks new possibilities for developers, chains, enterprises, Indexers, and Delegators by creating a scalable, unified environment for blockchain data access.
The purpose of this guide is to break down how Horizon affects each participant in The Graph ecosystem. For some, Horizon brings continuity and increased reliability. For others, it introduces new economics, new operational requirements, and entirely new opportunities. Across all groups, Horizon strengthens The Graph’s foundation for long-term sustainability and positions the protocol to meet the growing demands of blockchain development, institutional adoption, and data-intensive applications.
Developers & Data Consumers
Uninterrupted Subgraph Service and a Path to Sustainable, Multi-Service Data Access
What’s Changed
Developers and data consumers using Subgraphs will experience uninterrupted continuity. Subgraphs work exactly as they did before. APIs, schemas, curation signal, and query behavior remain unchanged. The biggest shift for builders is that access to multiple data services via one protocol is now imminent. Subgraphs coexist with Substreams, Token API, and analytics services, all using the underlying protocol’s unified payments and discovery capabilities.
Why It Matters
Different use cases require different data access patterns. The Graph’s ambition is that blockchain development teams can mix and match data solutions without having to juggle multiple vendors or support systems. In other words, vertical product integration via the protocol should streamline discovery and take advantage of the potential that a protocol-based marketplace can offer over centralized providers.
More importantly, The Graph wants those data solutions to be offered via a decentralized protocol to ensure the long-term continuity that centralized competitors have not been able to provide for web3 developers. Over the past few years, competitors have closed up shop, consolidated, or deprecated specific support with little warning. This challenge has affected The Graph’s users as well.
In the past, some services relied on a mix of decentralized support and centralized core development teams. At times, this created inconsistencies in long-term availability. With Horizon, The Graph enters a new era that leans more heavily on the decentralized protocol itself, strengthening reliability and continuity for developers. Having data services grounded in a durable payment system with a distributed network of service providers should better support more long-term sustainability of data service continuity across a diverse set of chain ecosystems.
Chain & Ecosystem Teams
A Unified Data Layer for Every Chain with Scalable, Multi-Service Support
What’s Changed
Horizon introduces a more streamlined and scalable framework for onboarding and sustaining chains on The Graph. Each chain can now enable multiple data services at once rather than being limited solely to the Network’s Subgraph Service. The Graph Foundation is also placing a renewed emphasis on having services operate via the protocol to ensure that chain ecosystems have more continuity over time.
Why It Matters
Chains can now approach The Graph as a comprehensive data layer for developers, rather than a single API solution. More data services mean more usable data, more use cases enabled, more developer adoption, and clearer economic alignment through GRT. In line with these goals, The Graph Foundation will also play a more active role in coordinating across these products and data services to streamline onboarding for chain and ecosystem teams - from initial chain integrations to rewards support on the decentralized network.
Enterprise & Institutions
Modular, Verifiable, and Compliance-Ready Data Infrastructure Built for Enterprise Scale
What’s Changed
Since our inception, The Graph’s core focus has been on serving web3 developers. Over the past year, The Graph ecosystem has placed more emphasis on supporting enterprise and institutional use cases with the growing realization that tokenization of real-world assets is the most imminent and substantial shift that the industry has seen since DeFi Summer in 2021. Many institutions have already been using Graph Node for custom indexing for several years. With the shift to Horizon, institutional users gain access to a more flexible, modular data platform with the value propositions that The Graph Network aims to provide for this specific market vertical.
Why It Matters
Institutions clearly find utility in The Graph’s products, and a key priority for our ecosystem is to continue providing sustained support for these users as their needs grow, while translating that value back to The Graph Network and GRT. The introduction of Horizon is also an invitation for the Foundation, Core Devs, and Data Service Developers to innovate new products, services and governance systems that will be able to meet the needs of these major institutions. Institutions have needs for data auditing, verifiabilit,y and compliance-ready infrastructure. With Horizon, the ecosystem can nurture new data services that evolve to meet these market demands, as well as others that have yet to be identified.
Indexers & Data Providers
Expanded Earning Opportunities through Multi-Service Operations and Streamlined Indexing
What’s Changed?
Indexers (or Data Providers) will experience three core changes. In the short-term, Subgraph Indexers will go through the fairly routine task of upgrading their stack to serve queries via Horizon. Moving forward, Indexers will need to understand that staking happens on a per data service basis. Moving forward, Indexers will need to stake GRT on a per data service basis. At Horizon launch, the minimum staking requirement for the Subgraph Data Service remains unchanged. The requirements for new services will be determined as they are integrated into the protocol and are subject to the governance and economic models of each service. These requirements are specific to the governance and economic models of each service, with more information to emerge as each service is integrated into the protocol.
Most importantly, Indexers will experience more growth opportunities via the introduction of multiple data services. While Subgraphs are a mainstay of The Graph protocol, blockchain use cases require more diverse data pipelines. Horizon will enable The Graph Network’s providers to serve end users via new data services, leading to more revenue streams, protocol fees, and burns that translate to token value accrual.
Why It Matters
Horizon expands the role of Indexers from single service operators into multi service providers that can participate in a broader, growing data economy. Indexers gain access to multiple revenue streams as the protocol adds Substreams, Token API, and other future services, each with its own fee markets and demand profiles. By raising the baseline for rewards eligibility, Horizon also strengthens the reputation and reliability of the network. Data quality, uptime, and low latency become enforceable standards across all services, improving user trust while ensuring that rewards flow to Indexers delivering verifiable, high-performing infrastructure. Ultimately, Horizon positions Indexers and data providers at the center of a protocol built to support many categories of blockchain data. As more services come online, Indexers benefit from higher activity, stronger economic alignment, and a larger role in the future of The Graph’s multi service ecosystem.
Data Service Developers
Permissionless Launchpad for New Data Services Powered by Shared Protocol Primitives
What’s Changed?
Horizon introduces the first comprehensive framework for building new data services directly on The Graph. Instead of relying on custom infrastructure, bespoke payment rails, or centralized distribution, Data Service Developers can now plug into a unified protocol that provides:
- A shared staking and economic security layer
- Unified payments
- A common interface for discovery through the protocol’s marketplace
- A distributed network of Service Providers capable of running new workloads
This transforms The Graph from a single-service protocol into a permissionless platform where developers can design and deploy decentralized data services such as real-time streams, analytics engines, aggregation services, or new forms of verifiability.
Under Horizon, each data service operates independently, with its own governance, economic models, and service parameters. Developers gain flexibility to define how their services are metered, paid for, provisioned, and scaled, while relying on the protocol to handle the complex infrastructure that would otherwise need to be built from scratch.
Why It Matters
Horizon significantly lowers the barrier to launching innovative data products. Data Service Developers no longer need to build economic systems, payments infrastructure, or a network of providers on their own. Instead, the protocol becomes a common foundation that supports experimentation and long-term sustainability. The Graph Foundation sees this as having two major implications.
First, it accelerates innovation. Developers can bring new ideas to market faster because core components like staking, fee flows, and accountability are already solved. Second, it expands the ecosystem. Each new data service becomes a net addition to the protocol, creating new fee markets and new opportunities for Indexers, Delegators, and chains.
By making The Graph a multi-service platform, Horizon unlocks a diverse and competitive marketplace where data teams, researchers, analytics providers, and infrastructure developers can deploy specialized services to meet emerging needs across the blockchain industry. The result is a more dynamic ecosystem where the protocol grows stronger with each new service introduced.
Delegators & GRT Holders
More Revenue Fee Streams and Clearer Economic Alignment Across Data Services
What’s Changed?
Horizon introduces several updates that reshape the Delegator experience and broaden the economic utility of GRT. Service-specific delegation gives Delegators more control over where they allocate stake. With each data service operating independently, Delegators can target the services they believe will generate sustainable activity. Removal of the delegation tax increases Delegator efficiency and returns, especially for active participants who rebalance frequently. Simultaneous undelegation requests offer flexibility and make it easier to reposition stake as new services launch. More fee markets across Subgraphs, Substreams, Token API, and emerging services expand the number of ways for Delegators to earn a share of protocol revenue. The result is a more flexible delegation system that supports a broader and more diverse protocol economy.
Why It Matters
Delegators now have exposure to a wider set of fee streams and service categories. As the protocol evolves beyond Subgraphs, each new service creates additional opportunities for fees to be generated and burned, strengthening GRT’s long-term utility. More services also increase staking demand, encourage broader Indexer participation, and create a healthier economic environment for all protocol participants.
Horizon also makes Delegation more strategic. Instead of a single service determining Delegator returns, Delegators can distribute stake across multiple services, Indexers, and economic models. This allows Delegators to support the areas of the ecosystem they believe are most impactful, from real-time data pipelines to analytics solutions to enterprise-focused offerings.
GRT holders benefit from a protocol that now scales economically with every new data service added to the network. As activity grows across services, fees accumulate, fees are burned, and the protocol aligns more strongly with real usage. Delegators should monitor announcements for new services launching on The Graph Network to determine where their stake can best support the ecosystem and capture long-term value.
About The Graph
is the leading indexing and query protocol powering the decentralized internet. Since launching in 2018, it has empowered tens of thousands of developers to effortlessly build and leverage across countless blockchains, including Ethereum, Solana, Arbitrum, Optimism, Base, Polygon, Celo, Soneium, and Avalanche. With powerful tools like Substreams and Token API, The Graph delivers high-performance, real-time access to onchain data. From low-latency indexing to rapid token data, it serves as the premier solution for building composable, data drive dapps.
Discover more about how The Graph is shaping the future of decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN) and stay connected with the community. Follow The Graph on , , , , , and . Join the community on The Graph’s , join technical discussions on The Graph’s .
oversees The Graph Network. , , , and are five of the many organizations within The Graph ecosystem.
